HPE CEO – Meg Whitman Resigns

Since managing the biggest separation in HP’s corporate history, Meg Whitman has announced that she will be resigning as HPE CEO. On the 1st February 2018, Whitman will be handing the baton over to the current president Antonio Neri, who joined HP in 1995.

Despite the results of the 4th Quarter topping their expectations, HPE shares were down by nearly 8% within the after-hour trading.

Following the departure of Leo Apotheker, in September 2011 Whitman was appointed HP CEO and quickly put in to action a five-year turnaround.

In 2015, Whitman made a decision to remove the printer and PC arm HP Inc which to date is the largest corporate separation in history.

Adding in the spin off and mergers of HPE’s Enterprise Services and Software arms, it appears that HP has actually split itself in to four parts. With the headcount over in HPE standing now less than 50,000 compared to the 350,000 when Whitman joined.

Whitman also had a habit of dropping in on the top HP resellers and was only too happy to discuss HP and HPE’s channel-friendly credentials at its partners summits.

According to a statement from HPE, they have said to have improved customer and partner satisfaction under her leadership, as well as rebuilding their balance sheet, reigniting innovation and strengthening their operations. Since November 2015, HPE has delivered a shareholder return of 89%.

In the summer, Whitman was linked with the top job at Uber which started to lead to predictions that she might be leaving by the end of 2018.

The company have also announced that HPE’s 4th Quarters revenue have rose 5% year on year to $7.8bn (approximately £5bn), with 1% of that was due to the acquisitions.

Whitman will remain on the HPE board of Directors, while Neri will become president and CEO in February.